Woman writes from the heart

When her first cousin visited from Maryville, Tenn., Mary B. Woodcock of Potter’s Hill never expected more than one of their typical sporadic visits sharing family stories, memories and laughs.

Nancy S. Saunders

When her first cousin visited from Maryville, Tenn., Mary B. Woodcock of Potter’s Hill never expected more than one of their typical sporadic visits sharing family stories, memories and laughs.

But when cousin Silas Heath saw the handwritten poem propped against a clock on her mantel, his curiosity was piqued. He read it, then others she’d jotted down in specific moments over the years.

“Mary, we can make a book of these,” he said. And they did, with his photographs as cover material.

The daughter of Duplin County tobacco farmers Chancey and Ella Houston Bostic, and sibling of two sisters and three brothers, Woodcock grew up in a close family — working hard, pulling her weight in the family, going to church and enjoying the simple things in life like fishing, then cooking and eating the catch.

She married, had two daughters and a son, and now has three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

She is a product of Duplin County Schools, having completed a year at James Sprunt Community College in Kenansville. But mostly, her education is from life experiences.

She spent adult years in the textile industry, working at the Kinston Shirt Factory for more than 10 years, Texfi on Airport Road for 13 years, then at the Allied Sewing Plant in Beulaville.

Through it all, her heart has been open to the joys of life, found in easy and struggling times, and in the people she’s known along the way.

“Her poetry is simple, yet profound,” said Heath in his introduction to the book, which he also published. “She makes the reader feel what she feels. One cannot read these poems without seeing that Mary is a lover of people.”

Copies, at $9.95, are available across the area: Kinston Bible and Book Store; Skylight Inn in Ayden; Two Dogs Pizza, The Lighthouse and Gerald Jr.’s Barbershop in Pink Hill; Potter’s Hill Grill; Monk’s Grocery, Janet’s Beauty Shop, Ricky Lynn’s, Beulaville Drug and Dean’s Gas Company in Beulaville; Mike’s Tree Farm and Terry’s Automotive, both near Richlands; and Second Charles Bookstore in Jacksonville.

Nancy S. Saunders can be reached at 252-559-1079 or Nancy.Saunders@Kinston.com.